Emergy Synthesis for Three Main Industries in Wuyishan City, China

Abstract

Emergy synthesis is an objective method for evaluating the resource consumption by industrial development and the resulting environmental impacts. In this study, we apply emergy synthesis to account for the energy and material flows of three main industries in China's Wuyishan City, i.e. the tourism, tea, and bamboo industries. We calculate seven indices: renewable input ratio, emergy self-support ratio, emergy investment ratio, emergy density, emergy money ratio, emergy yield ratio, and environmental loading ratio. The results show that the continuous development of tourism industry is mainly resulted from the increase in its purchased resources, the tea industry’s development has been relatively stable, and the bamboo industry depends greatly on non-renewable resources but has considerable development potential. The results suggest that tourism is the most environment-friendly one. Based on our analysis, we propose two sustainable development strategies: the promotion of intercropping in tea and bamboo plantations and the development of an advanced value-added bamboo production chain.

Keywords: emergy, bamboo industry, tea industry, tourism, Wuyishan City